Chapter Three
"Hey, Miriam – what do you think of this dress on me?"
It was the second week of classes, and the back to school dance with Red Fountain was tonight. Because of our insanely busy class schedules, Ryan and I hadn't seen each other at all since getting back to Magix, so tonight would be the first time I'd be seeing him since I left Eraklyon this summer.
Suite 12 looked like a tornado had blown through it. All the doors were open, allowing everyone easy access to everyone else's rooms, which all looked like a pigsty. Clothes, shoes, dresses, jewelry, makeup, accessories, and everything under the sun that someone might possibly want to wear or use for the dance was strewn across the floor and furniture. Everyone was walking back and forth between our four rooms, trying on dresses and examining makeup palettes against their skin.
The particular dress I was wearing now belonged to Aqua. It was made of turquoise silk, in a wrap-around style with a halter neck that fell to a V-neck, revealing my collarbone and just enough cleavage to be tasteful. The skirt was long and layered, falling in asymmetrical panels of fabric around my legs to just around my knees.
"It's pretty, but…" Miriam started, examining me from every angle in the dress. "I don't know – something feels a little off about the color."
"Well then, what do you suggest I wear?" I tried not to sound impatient, but the dance started in half an hour and I still didn't have a dress, not to mention accessories, hair and makeup.
"I have an idea…" Miriam walked out of our room and across the hall to Lola's single. After a few minutes of searching, she returned with something gold in her hands. "Here. Try this on."
I held it up against my body, trying to imagine what it would look like on. "You really think I can pull off gold? That it won't look too cartoonish with my red hair?"
"Alyssa, stop worrying. I think you'll look fabulous. It'll bring out your eyes. Now at least try it for me."
"Alright…" I sighed, taking off the turquoise dress. The fit was nice, at least, even though it belonged to supermodel-skinny Lola.
When I finished fixing my hair, I looked up to meet Miriam's eyes. "So? How do I look?" I asked.
"I was right," she beamed, looking exceptionally proud of herself. "You look… you look like you just stepped out of one of Lola's Teen Fairy magazines."
Ivy chose that moment to come into our room, wearing a short strapless white tulle dress with a pink satin bow at the waist that I recognized as belonging to Lola (no surprise). "Hey Alyssa, are you going to wear that turquoise halter dress of Aqua's? Because I think I might wear it if you don't… whoa. You look stunning."
"Really?"
"Yes, really," Ivy said, picking up the discarded turquoise dress from the floor. "Why have you never worn gold before?"
"Why has who never worn gold before?" Aqua asked, peeking her head into our room. "Wow, 'Liss, you look beautiful. You should definitely wear that."
"Okay, I need to see for myself how good this supposedly looks." Lola's room was the only one with a full-length mirror – unsurprisingly – so I traipsed across the disaster zone of our common area to Lola's single.
Lola was staring at herself in the mirror, twisting and turning to get a full view of the dress she was wearing – a hot pink leopard-print one-shoulder mini-dress with a hot pink sash tied at the waist. "What do you think?" Lola asked, still examining herself in the pink dress. "Too much?"
"Definitely." I wrinkled my nose. "What do you think of this one on me?"
Lola peeled her eyes off of her own reflection to examine me in the gold dress. "Smoking!" she declared, reaching out to feel the edge of the skirt. "Hey… isn't this mine?"
"Yeah…" I admitted. "Miriam picked it out for me."
"Well she's got fabulous taste. You look H-O-T, girlfriend."
I checked myself out in the mirror. The dress was made out of this yellow-gold silky material that shimmered slightly when it caught the light. It had thin spaghetti straps and a sweetheart neckline, with a wide satin sash that tied in a big bow above my left hip. The skirt came down to just above my knees, and fanned out slightly as I twirled around in it. The color complimented my newly streaked red hair and, as Miriam had predicted, brought out my unusual golden eyes.
"Doesn't she?" Miriam said, coming up behind me in Aqua's turquoise halter dress. "And thank you for the compliment – coming from you, Lola, that means a lot."
"It's true, she looks stunning. Hey 'Liss, I have the perfect pair of shoes to go with that dress, if you want them." Lola reached into her enormous closet and pulled out a pair of gold high-heeled sandals with little bows over the toes. "You're a size seven, right?"
"Seven and a half, but I'll squeeze. Those are adorable, Lo! Thanks for letting me borrow them, and the dress."
"No problem. Can't wait to see how Ryan reacts when he sees you in that dress." Lola giggled, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, and I whacked her playfully on the shoulder.
Miriam and I went back to our room and found Aqua trying on a pretty white silk chiffon mid-thigh-length strapless dress with a flowy skirt and a bright blue silk sash tied at the waist. The colors popped beautifully against her dark glowing skin and long mane of dark curls. When she saw us, she grinned sheepishly at Miriam. "I've picked through Mel's and Ivy's and Alyssa's closets already – not to mention my own – and found nothing. Goodness knows Dee doesn't have anything worth wearing, and I'm certainly not about to borrow one of Lola's haute couture pieces, so… hope it's alright?"
That dress must've come from Miriam's closet, I realized. This was an extremely good sign. While the others had been in and out of my side of the room to borrow stuff, as far as I knew no one else had touched Miriam's closet. It had been two weeks since she'd arrived unexpectedly, but the ice was still thawing. Looking at Aqua twirling in Miriam's dress, though, I had a very good feeling that the others were finally starting to warm up to Miriam.
Miriam was absolutely nothing like Taylor. She was sweet, smart, and incredibly funny – she just had this way of looking at life like nothing I'd ever seen before. And she was sooo generous. It was about time the others started to see it.
"Hey," Aqua said, as she stopped spinning around in front of the mirror. "Isn't that my dress?"
Miriam looked down and blushed slightly, smoothing the folds of the skirt. "Yeah, it is. I'll go put it back in your room now. I just wanted to try it on, for fun."
"Are you kidding me? You have got to wear that tonight. I won't take no for an answer."
Miriam's eyes lit up. "Really? Oh, thank you so much!"
"No problem. Now we're even, eh?" Aqua said, gesturing to her dress and laughing. After a beat, Miriam laughed too.
"You guys, fifteen minutes till the Red Fountain boys arrive!" Lola yelled from inside her single. Aqua let out a tiny yelp of surprise and scrambled back to the room she shared with Mel.
"Your friends are so nice," Miriam remarked, buckling the straps on a pair of silver kitten-heeled sandals.
"Yes they are," I agreed, spritzing myself with the perfume Ryan had given me as a parting gift this summer. I'm so glad they're finally starting to accept you.
Ten minutes of primping later, the seven of us emerged from behind our room doors, checking out each other's final dress choices.
"That dress is totally amazing, Lola," Miriam said. "Who is it?"
"Spella McCartney. She's the best." Lola's dress was a tight petal pink satin strapless number with a short, bubble-hem-like skirt that was done in sections to look like flower petals. She'd flat-ironed her blond hair so it fell down her back in a long, glossy curtain.
"You look amazing, Lo, but I think the real winner tonight is Alyssa." Mel gave me the once-over, from my streaked hair to Lola's bow heels. "You look fantastic."
"Thanks. Miriam picked out the dress for me," I added quickly, not wanting to miss the opportunity to put in a good word for Miriam. Mel, I noticed, was wearing a tight red knee-length halter dress with two long slits up the side of the skirt – to allow maximum dancing potential, most likely. That was just so Mel. Her long, blue-black hair was parted into two long pigtails pulled up high on the sides of her head.
"Cool. You look great too, Miriam," she said, giving her a nod of approval.
"And who managed to get Dee into a dress and heels?" Aqua asked incredulously, eyeing our pink-haired techie friend, who blushed bashfully. Dee's outfit included a short purple strapless dress with a bright green sash at the waist, bright green fishnets, and purple high-heeled sandals. Her shoulder-length pink hair had been flat-ironed, with choppy, asymmetrical bangs layered over her eyes, which had been done in extremely cool, futuristic looking green and purple eye makeup. A layered necklace of chunky bright green plastic beads that looked vaguely technological hung around her neck. The entire look was very cute, and very Dee.
"You like?" Mel asked, cocking her head to the side and twirling a piece of her hair around her pointer finger. "It was all my work. I picked up the fishnets and the necklace as a present for Dee on tour with my mom, and then when I saw this dress in her closet I just had to put it all together."
"The Red Fountain guys are going to go crazy for you tonight," Ivy said. She looked ethereally pretty as always, in a floaty silver chiffon halter dress with an empire waist and a handkerchief-hemmed skirt. The bodice of the dress was entirely covered in silver sequins of varying sizes.
"They're gonna go crazy for all of us," I amended, looking around at all of my friends, dressed up and made up to the nines. "Now come on. Let's go have some fun!"
Ryan was waiting for me in the doorway of the ballroom. "Alyssa!" he exclaimed as the seven of us walked through the doors. He picked me up and twirled me around, before putting me back on the ground and leaning down to give me a long, sweet kiss that sent shivers down my spine. "Mmm… God, I've missed you."
"I missed you too, Ry." I closed my eyes and leaned my head against his shoulder, inhaling the scent of his cologne, as he wrapped his arms around my waist.
After a moment, Ryan pulled back, still keeping his arms around my waist, and gave me a quick once-over, much the way Mel had. Except this time I got tingles from head to toe as his eyes raked over my body appreciatively. "You look… wow…"
"You don't look so bad yourself."
"Turn around," he ordered, pulling something out of his pocket. I obliged, and felt something cool against my collarbone. Reaching up with my fingers, I felt a delicate gold chain necklace, with a small gold heart pendant hanging off of it.
"Ryan, it's beautiful."
"It has sentimental value, too… although maybe that's a story for another time. Dance with me?"
"I'd be a fool to say no," I murmured, taking his hand and letting him lead me onto the dance floor, which was quickly filling up with dancing couples.
After dancing with both Ryan and my friends for a long time, I was in desperate need of a punch break. Ryan was talking with some of his friends from Red Fountain, so instead of dragging him away from his conversation, I met up with the girls at one of the snack tables.
The second I sat down with my cup of punch and plate of cookies, Lola's eyes zeroed in on my new necklace. "Is that necklace from Ryan?" She said his name slowly and with emphasis, like a favorite treat she was savoring in her mouth. I giggled and whacked her on the shoulder again.
"Yes, it is," I admitted, which prompted squeals of delight all around the table. "He said something about it having 'sentimental value', but then we started dancing before he could tell me the whole story."
"It's beautiful," Ivy said, reaching out to touch it. "That boy has good taste."
"It even goes with your outfit," Mel exclaimed.
"It does, doesn't it? I hadn't even noticed that."
"So did his eyes pop out of his head when he got a look at the gorgeousness that is you?"
"Lola!" I giggled. "He was at a loss for words… all he said was wow."
Aqua grinned mischievously. "As in, Wow I have the hottest girlfriend in all the realms, it's taking every ounce of my restraint not to ravish you into the next millennium?"
I was used to Aqua's racy comments by now, so I didn't snap at her as we all dissolved into peals of laughter. "You are so bad, Aqua."
"And you love me anyway."
"That I do."
Mel was staring intently at something behind me. "What's wrong, Mel?" I asked.
She blinked. "Oh, um… nothing…"
"Mel, something's up. What is it?"
"It's probably nothing, just… there's a girl talking to Ryan…"
"What?" I whirled around in shock and stared at the dance floor. There was Ryan, looking incredibly handsome, and next to him was… a tall, pretty girl… who was wrapping her arms around him… and playing with his hair…
My blood turned to ice water in my veins. Who was that girl, and what was she doing with my Ryan?
The others turned around and zeroed in on Ryan and the mystery girl, their faces registering the same emotions I was feeling – shock, confusion, anger, sadness. "Who is that slut?" Mel spat, slamming her fist against the table. "I should go over there and give her a piece of my mind."
"If anyone deserves a beat-down, its Ryan," Aqua insisted. "There's no way that lowlife can two-time one of my friends and get away with it."
"Mel, Aqua, chill. No one is a slut or a lowlife. I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation behind this." I stood up and pushed in my chair. "And I'm going to go find out what it is."
I wove my way through the crowd of dancing fairies and specialists, until I got to Ryan and the mystery girl. "Hey, Ry." I forced myself to keep my tone light and even. To stake my claim for Mystery Girl to see, I leaned against him and rested my head on his shoulder, just as I had done earlier at the start of the dance. "Who's this?"
Ryan visibly stiffened. "Alyssa, this is my friend–"
"Alexa. Lady Alexa of Eraklyon." Her voice was sweet and even, but I could tell she was ticked off underneath the niceness exterior. "Ryan and I are old friends."
My eyes narrowed as I examined this Alexa girl. She was tall and slender, with long straight glossy black hair, big blue eyes, perfect creamy skin, and bright red lips. Her tiny, lithe figure was displayed to its full advantage in a tight ice blue satin strapless mini-dress with a big bow tied at the waist, and sky-scraping platforms.
She was the antithesis of me in every way. That made me nervous.
"How nice," I said. "What year are you in, Alexa?"
"I'm a junior, just like Ryan," she said. "I used to go to Beta Academy, but I transferred this year to Alfea."
"I haven't seen Alexa in a long time; we were just catching up," Ryan hastily explained, as if sensing my uncomfortable feelings.
"I see." There was a moment of silence, before Alexa finally seemed to realize she wasn't welcome here anymore.
"Well, I guess I'd better go find some of my dorm-mates. I just wanted to come say hi." Then, in a move that was either incredibly gutsy or incredibly foolish, she leaned in and kissed Ryan on the cheek. "I'll see you around, Ry. Call me, okay?"
The scent of her perfume – vanilla, spices, and patchouli – lingered in the air. "Okay, Ryan, who is she?" I asked inquisitively, crossing my arms over my chest and staring daggers at him.
"I told you, Alexa's just an old friend," he said, holding his arms up, palms facing forward, in the "I didn't do anything wrong" pose.
"Then why does she kiss you and call you 'Ry'? I thought I was the only one who could do that!"
Ryan stared at his feet. "Okay… Alexa and I used to go out."
An ex-girlfriend of Ryan's was here, at Alfea? One who looked like that?
Noticing my expression, Ryan quickly added, "But we broke up a long time ago, and I swear I'm over her. The only one I want right now is you, Alyssa." He tried to embrace me, but I slapped his hands away.
"Why didn't you tell me your ex-girlfriend was coming to Alfea?"
"I had no idea she was even at Alfea until she surprised me tonight. And I was totally going to tell you about her, until you saw for yourself and jumped to the wrong conclusions."
"It looks like she hasn't quite gotten the memo that she's your ex-girlfriend."
"Alyssa. Look at me." He tilted my chin upward to meet his gaze, his blue eyes locking onto my golden ones. "Even if Alexa still has feelings for me, I promise I do not have feelings for her. She's just an old friend from Eraklyon. You are the only girl I want, now and forever."
Even though I was still mad at him, his words still made my insides melt into a gooey puddle of mush. "Awww… Okay, I forgive you. But I better not see her hanging around you like that anymore."
"Next time I see her, I'll make sure she knows that I'm with you now, and that I'm strictly her friend." He wrapped his arms around me again, and this time I didn't slap them away. A slow song was playing, and we swayed back and forth to the music, content in each other's arms.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alexa, surrounded by a group of juniors and their boyfriends. When she noticed me staring at her, she caught my gaze, then narrowed her eyes at me.
I heard her message loud and clear.
This. Means. War.
Author's Note: Bet you guys weren't expecting that, huh? So an ex-girlfriend of Ryan's is at Alfea and looking to make things hard for Alyssa and Ryan. (Trust me, this is most definitely not the last we will be seeing of Alexa.) Poor Alyssa… and there's still more bad things in store for her later on in the story. What bad things? Well, you'll just have to wait and see, now won't you? *laughs*
Also, for one reviewer who said something about Miriam's name... well, it really is just a total coincidence that Alyssa's new roommate shares a name with Bloom's mom. I swear I didn't think of that until I'd already become attached to the character of Miriam, and couldn't bear to change anything about her. :) So sorry.
Feedback is very much appreciated. Reviews are, as always, motivation to get the next chapter out sooner.
See you later!
- Authoress